KOCHI: An officer of the Kochi unit of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), who is a key member of the team investigating the high-profile gold smuggling case, is among the winners of the Union Home Minister's Medal for Excellence in Investigation 2020.
C Radhakrishnan Pillai, Deputy Superintendent of Police, NIA unit Kochi, was included in the list of 121 award winners released by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday.
Radhakrishnan Pillai has been serving in the NIA since 2010 and is the Chief Investigation Officer of the case relating to the smuggling of gold via the diplomatic channel. He was also involved in the probe into the murder of a cop at the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border and the sensational Wagamon SIMI camp case.
NIA Additional SP AP Shoukkathali from the Kochi unit is also in the list of medal winners. Shoukkathali probed the theft of computer hardware from the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier and the Kanakamala IS case. As part of the IS case, Shoukkathali had visited France to share information regarding the 2015 Paris attack incident.
As many as seven officials from the Kerala Police also bagged the award. ACP C D Sreenivasan, DySP Girish P Sarathy, DySP K M Devasia, SP B Krishnakumar, Inspector Premachandran KE, K E Baiju, SP, and Sub Inspector Johnson George are the medal winners.